Becoming Piper Mclean
by riptide1500
Summary: How did Piper Mclean get famous? Here's the truly strange story of how Piper, a lonely girl, who has more than a few people against her, decides to make a video diary and post it on YouTube. In a twist of fate, her thoughts go viral.
1. Chapter 1

Some stories created by the internet are amazing. Heroic. Definitely worth sharing. Like people getting popular on social media for doing an act of true kindness, or calling out a wrongdoing and getting it fixed. Now, my story is a bit different. Annabeth, a popular vlogger and my new best friend calls it fate. Leo, a once Vine star now hilarious textpost account, call it the dumbest of luck. But something in my mind says karma. Usually karma is bad happening to bad people who deserve it, but I feel like this was the opposite. This is why.

"I hear that girl Piper got a 39% on her Math Test!" A girl with newly ombre-d hair blabbed to her friend group, with their backs to me. Her friend, who was wearing an outfit I saw on a popular girl last week, gaped.

"How can you do that? You would have to try to be that stupid!" Her friend laughed.

"I hear that the only answers she got she copied from Reyna." The group grinned.

"Ugh she's so perfect, it's hard to not want to be like her. But still, that's so low, leaching off of how smart Reyna is to get above a fail." The girl speaking I vaguely remember from a Spanish class we had together. Her name was Jessie or something, and I remember she was super annoying. How many times "Oh-lah Piper...umm...-o. Coh-mo est-ahs" was repeated through the year, the world would pray to not know.

But ouch. Me. Their talking about me!

Before I could stop myself, I walked up to them.

"Nice try. I got a 74%. At least have the decency to get your facts right."

So that line might have been cool if I wasn't super flustered right now. Of course, I know people talk about me and stuff, but this was ridiculous. It was literally in front of me. And they thought I copied off of Reyna? no thank you. The day I ask for help from that girl is the day I become a blue footed booby.

See, everyone loves her, but something about me ticks her off. The jabs will be quiet and rude, unlike the more obnoxious Drew Tanaka, whose troublesome tendencies have given her a one shot ticket to nothing but community college and an angry life. But still those tendencies have been making my life more of a living hell. I promise I don't try to make it a Zero to Hero kind of thing, but honestly, that's the best way to describe it. Or well, the zero part is actually more accurate. With two girls, both popular in their own rights with most of the school following them, picking on me, very few people would accept me as a friend. Then subtract from those the amount that are high off their asses and the number is even less. And that tiny little number is the only shot I have at friends, but they only talk about things I don't understand, with different fandoms or bloggers or TV shows that I didn't know existed. It was rough. But in order to truly see how it happened, we have to go back to my flush faced snap.

The girls all turned red, and someone who was watching the exchange chuckled. Out of my peripheral vision I saw that it was Percy Jackson, the gorgeous trouble maker who always went out of his way to get out of Reyna's way. He tried to befriend me, but it was awkward since I usually don't have to make small talk so we kinda sat there chilling until Percy couldn't handle the silence and started blabbing. He was really funny and nice, but I didn't like him as anything more than a potential friend.

Sorry, ADHD here, back to the present! Someone from their group gasped. Gossip is like it's own subject here, because lunch is, for so many more people than it should, gossip central. Each person wanted to get a better status, so the gave more popular people the juicier gossip so they would talk with them again. It was a terrible system that I refuse to follow. There was so much back-stabbing, lying and sucking up that made the person feel really inferior to the girls who would decide whether or not to boost the popularity. It was, as I said before, ridiculous. SO although they had all gossiped like it was a sport, I bet that group of girls have never been stood up to. And honestly, it wasn't just them, but so many more people gossiped that the back of my mind said "Do they deserve this? Look at them! They look so ashamed!". The front was screaming though, yelling some profanities that I don't really feel the need to repeat.

One girl opened her mouth, looking like she was going to apologize. Nope! No I am not done quite yet, so I cut over her first stammering.

"I don't care. Cut the act. But just a tip. Think before you speak, or it sounds like you don't think at all. And if that were the case, then I think it would be easier for people to comprehend that you could get, say...39% on a math test? Have a nice day." Okay wow my bitch mode took over. I'm starting to sound all terrible, like Reyna, but with the confrontational piece like Drew. I rush over to my next class, not caring that there's still a bit of lunch left. I brought mine, freshly made by my father's personal chef. Another thing is I don't use other people to get my popularity, like I said before, but because my dad is who he his, it wouldn't be hard.

I pass movie poster after movie poster of him, falling in love with various women, which is okay because my mom left us when she found a place in France to live with her other daughter, who was...not arranged. She had an affair, and couldn't admit to it for a long time. So she left us. I'm alright about it, since I only remember the flashes of memories where she would be holding me on her hip. There were more photos taken of me when she was here than have been taken of me for the next decade to the present. Dad started acting more, and better, because he knew heartbreak, and that was an element in so many movies you can't believe it. So my dad is extremely famous, but I try not to show it. The attention would be fast and annoying, then people would go back to gossip, so it just doesn't come out.

And attention in general isn't my thing. Take my clothes. I have these old beaten up converse that I fell in love with, a few big sweatshirts that make me feel like I'm in bed with blankets, and some nice jeans, yoga pants and leggings. It's not fashion, but it's comfy. I tear off little fuzz-balls that are on my sleeve as I wait for people to flood the English room. Mrs. Deluardo, the teacher, gave me a weird look.

The teachers are confused by me, because they know that I could make my status change easily, since they have had parent teacher conferences, but I don't change it, so they just sit there puzzling out how someone with the potential to be popular doesn't take it. It's so unusual to them.

Mrs. Deluardo was a larger woman that reminded me of the teapot from Beauty and the Beast, except she gave essays and finals. She wasn't my favorite, but she was nice enough. My subconscious notes that the bell has rang. The one thing in this class that sucked was Reyna. And speak of the devil, I saw glossy curls and heard a cute little giggle that could only be the girl that made my life hell. She was with her friends Gwen, who was a sporty girl who was a bit blunt, but nice, a sweet little girl named Hazel with the prettiest eyes, and a boy named Steven. As I looked up, I saw someone else that I didn't recognize.

So just a little observation about him. Even though I've been to movie premieres, walked the red carpet, and been to dozens of movie sets, the boy if front of me rivals most teen actors I've ever seen when it comes to looks. He was like Percy. Perfect. He had defined features, a strong jawline, golden blonde hair styled just right, pretty electric blue eyes, and a gorgeous body. Wow.

But my fantasy ended quickly. Reyna's eyes caught me. There were four empty seats around me. She confidently strode up to me. "Hey could you do us a huge favor?" I was taken aback. What was she doing? I followed her eyes to pretty boy and knew. Good first impression. I see. I was going to stutter out a response, but she gave me a little shove when no one was looking. She pretended to gasp, and help me up, kneeling down with me, and smirked. "Don't worry, you'll find something to write on. How about your chest? It's flat enough." I looked down. I actually have around the same size as her, with a smaller waist, but I wore sweatshirts, so she wouldn't know. She gave a victorious chuckle that she disguised fluidly as a cough when I didn't answer. I took my backpack and fled to the corner, where Dakoda was examining his nose with his eyes crossed, high af. I blanked out. Our teacher started talking, going over the agenda.

Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, new student. I looked up. Mrs. Deluardo didn't miss that. "I'm glad to know that you will pay attention to something I'm saying today, Ms. Piper." She said, since I usually tune her out like I was doing before. I blush for another time today.

"Why don't you tell us about yourself!" The new boy gets up. He's tall, around 6'0. Sigh.

"Hi, I'm Jason. I'm new to California, and I used to live in Pennsylvania. I play football and lacrosse, and I" He paused his confident speech when our eyes met. He gave a tiny intake of breath. Was he laughing at me? Did I face something on my face? I checked, and it was negligible. So what was that?

He continued quickly. "like the color red."

I'm wearing a red sweatshirt, so he was probably just nervous. People clapped or did whatever, and I tuned the class back out. Half of me wondered if I could get away with listening to music or sleeping, but decided against it. Before long, I heard the bell give that annoying double ding and started to go to my other class. For some reason Reyna was dawdling. Her friends left her after she waved to them to go. 'Dismissed' like royalty to servants.

"Pepper. Here's the deal. You don't waste the energy to even look at Jason. He's not mine yet, but he sure as hell will never be yours. So move along, but just a warning. Tread carefully." She started to walk away, but turned one last time.

"Because you remember last time." She gave a smirk and walked away. Subconsciously, I reached over to my choppy cut hair, given to me at camp by someone employed by Reyna. She was evil. I struggled to get my heavy backpack and walked out. Biology was next, and was probably the worst. Drew was more forward than Reyna, but was less intelligent, so her comments were negligible, but it was her actions I had to watch out for.

We were working on enzymes, and today we had a lab. It was pretty simple, but smelled had to put liver into hydrogen peroxide, watch it foam,and record the temperatures. As a vegetarian and animal rights activist, it completely grossed me out.

My lab partner was the person with the closest name to mine, so I had Drew's ex, Owen, who was the captain of the basketball team, goofing around and flirting with the girls of my class. He was a complete sexist oaf, so there was no way in hell I would collaborate with him easily. But he solved that problem by not working at all.

I was trying to plug the thermometer into the special computer thing when I dropped the little silver tool I never bothered to learn the name of. It would have been nothing, but I heard something that made my stomach drop and my cheeks flare.

"I'd like a piece of that. I'd tear it apart." Owen cracked up. I stood up so quickly that I almost hit my head.

"Excuse me? What did you just say to me?" Like before, the words flew out of my mouth. He gave a stupid little face.

"You've got a nice ass. I'm complimenting you. Say thanks." He gave a little grin. I then heard another voice I had almost completely forgotten about.

"Did you actually just say that? Dude. What the hell." It was Percy, who towered over the horrible Owen by 5 inches, being a tall swimmer. Oh no. Percy got into fights easily, and he won them easily too, but getting out of trouble...that definitely wasn't as easy for him. Owen's words were a bit more hesitant, but now he was taunting Percy, whose fists were clenched and his jaw was doing that thing. My mind was racing. How to stop?

"You her boyfriend Jackson? No wonder. I told her she had a nice ass. When you're done with her, I'll take her off your hands." Now we were both standing there shocked. The whole class's eyes were on us and a few people gasped. Someone whispered "no" from behind me. I was fuming. But Percy, he wasn't going to let that stand. He, without warning, punched him so hard across the nose that it immediately started to bleed. The teacher raced up from his desk, where he had been lounging. Owen got up and tried to punch Percy, but failed to do so and was dragged away by a friend and the teacher.

Percy spat out a harsh "Wrong answer." walking out and slamming the door.

I sat down, and a girl ran up to me.

"Are you okay? Oh my god that was awful. Do you know me? I'm Juniper. I'm one of Reyna's friends and I know I shouldn't like talk to you or whatever but I wanted to make sure you are okay. Are you?" Her mouth. It just didn't stop. I nodded, my blush fading, before finding my voice again.

'Wait. You "shouldn't talk" to me? Did Reyna tell you not to talk to me?" As she settled a wide eyed grimace on her face and nodded slowly, I felt my mind, once again, get angry.

She had no right whatsoever to treat me like this. What did I do? Exist? Ugh that villainous...witch. Reminder to stop swearing. But still. What even?

"Oh. Okay." I felt myself mumble, ending the conversation with the tiny brunette. She raised her eyebrows apologetically as she walked back to her partner. That was...something. And it was not good.

As I was washing my hands, more than ready to go home and cry/sleep/read/watch movies, the next thing that brought me to my fame happened. Splat. There was something cold in my hair. Cold and wet and sticking in it. I slowly reached up to pick a bit of a cube of liver out of my copper locks. Liver. My stomach lurched. Liver. It smelled. LIVER. I ran over to the trash and promptly puked. First time I've ever thrown up at school? When I found out that a sandwich made for me had bunny in it in third grade. But this was a first. It was intentionally done to make me upset. The teacher was running all over the place, trying to see who threw it. He found that our piece was missing, and since Owen wasn't there, he couldn't do anything but accusingly glare at random people in our class.

A smug smile from Drew let me know that it had not been a mistake. I was seething, and somewhere in my mind I found myself thinking that the liver could have cooked with the amount of steam I needed to lose. She looked at me, mouthed something, then gave an exaggerated wink and a dazzling smile. She was beautiful, but that was like the pretty colors on a deadly spider. The kind that would eat it's parents. That spider. Ugh I hate that girl.

One of her friends, a girl named Leslie, brushed past me, mumbling "You should avoid Drew's crushes. It will be better if you do." I looked back at her, but she was already past.

Then I thought for a minute. Who had I not avoided? Owen? No, he was her ex. Percy? Oh god. Percy. That's why she did that, to get back at me for 'stealing' Percy from her. I walked out of the room after trying to get the liver out over the sink, and ran to the limo that my dad paid to pick me up every day, hoping to make up for not being around at all. I coerced the driver, my personal butler named Eddie, to park it half a mile from school, so no one would know it's me. Stupid? Yes. An idea I got from Princess Diaries? yes. But effective? Very. So that was the plan.

I raced there and only noticed the hot tears on my face when I felt them reach my lips. I'm so done. The thought repeats itself in my mind as I cry in the backseat, and when I rip my backpack off, throw it into our living room, and run to my shower. It was too silent for me to sob like I wanted, since no one was home but me and Eddie. He was probably outside, flirting with the gardener. So it was just me in a 4 story mansion. I'm done with this. Done.

Now, I've contemplated suicide before, like so many others. But I have so much more to live for, you know? I can't rob myself or my father the chance to walk down the aisle. I can't take experiences away from myself or memories away from others. So that's out. I have a terrible pain tolerance, for stubbing my toe almost makes me cry as I swear passionately. So what do I do? I really need a friend right now.

I contemplate calling my childhood friend Frank, who I went to camp with, but he always gets so sad that I'm upset that I just feel guilty. Plus, last I talked to him, his grandmother was taking away his phone, and he wanted to alert me. But an idea formed in my head. What if it's not a person at all? Just pretend to talk to someone. I ran to the stairway that went up to the attic. It was filled with expensive toys that I wanted to donate, but my dad wanted to keep, since he didn't take many photos at the time after my mom left. It was a bit haunting, nostalgic, and like most attics, kinda creepy. I grabbed an oversized teddy bear and ran back down to my room. I looked at it for a second before starting.

"Dear bear. I've had a rough day." I start, but don't finish. It was smiling at me! How dare he? Then I gained control of my mind. The smile was sewed on. In an empty house with no one listening to me but my bear, I felt a little nuts, too nuts to continue. But another idea came to mind.

How about I talk to people, but they don't have to listen? I'm not crazy if I do this! I open my laptop and type out  .com really quickly. And there. I make a new account, because it's a new idea, you know? And I record myself. I start talking and don't stop. I cry, I laugh, I tell funny stories, I tell jokes that I laugh alone about, I dance around my room to the ringtone that means my father's calling. I spill everything. How cute I think the new kid is? Hella. How much I want to match Percy with someone perfect for him since that's the only thing he doesn't have and the only thing I'm good at, tell about my reaction to… well… everything. It is the kind of stuff I would tell a best friend. All these secrets. Some of the words tumble out without my notice. Things I haven't admitted to even myself. It lasted about an hour. It was freedom I felt as I posted it to an account with my real name on it. It was the real me, so why hide it. And it's not like anyone would see me.


	2. Chapter 2

The first issue: newscaster Elle Greenwood. She for some stupid reason decided to have the camera close up on me on some stupid Hollywood show about a movie premiere when she saw I was with my dad, Tristan Mclean, world famous A list celebrity.

Okay so this movie premiere had really good reviews and a great plotline, so I was psyched. I didn't do much with my dad, so this was a big deal. He got a designer to custom make a dress for me, and though I'm not a girly girl, that was awesomely cool. It was super sparkly, too low cut, and looked like a rendition of Ashley Tisdale's from a while ago but in a happier color, but I, for some reason, felt it was perfect. Except I felt like I wanted to borrow a coat from someone, since it was at night. But that wasn't exactly...proper.

But here's my problem. She saw me, and it's been awhile since I had walked the carpet, so there were quite a few things that have changed about me. (I got older. Duh) So she didn't recognize who I was when she approached us. My dad opened his mouth to talk to her, probably to introduce me, but she cut him off.

"Is this a new girlfriend? She's gorgeous. I ever new Tristan went for the younger ones, but, can't blame you! She's flawless!" First of all, I captured quite a bit of attention by breaking into one of those ugly fits of laughter I have, half listening to her other words. Sure, I, a 17 year old girl, am dating a 41 year old man. Not weird. But I couldn't do that to myself, however little there was to besmirch, or to my dad, who I really could have messed with in the public's eyes.

It took a lot of willpower not to tell her "We live together" like my inner brain said, but I responded politely.

"Tristan is my father. Nice of you to think he still has a face to catch a seventeen year old, though" I gave a sweeter, completely fake laugh. She matched mine perfectly. Oh, politics.

She kept on talking to my dad, though, asking about the new movie he was in, which was his first time he was playing someone older than 25, though he exceeded that age by 16 years. Creepyyyyy. He was still the star, though, so he wasn't upset. It was one of those white kid baseball movies where the father wants 'what's best for' the son, etc. I tuned out, picking at my $120 manicure that I had chipped in the limo here. But once again, the attention turned to me.

"So how haven't we heard about how pretty you are? You're a knockout!" Her grin made me uncomfortable. She expected an "Oh, thank you I'm wearing…" but that's not really what she got, which was maybe one of my biggest mistakes.

"What? Are you kidding? I..." I then referenced a internet joke I saw on some kid named Leo's Instagram while my dad gave me an are-you-okay/I'll-kill-you-later kind of stare, while Elle gasped. I realized my mistake.

It didn't look humble, like I had been trained to make renouncing compliments seem. Nope, it looked genuine, because it was. And genuine surprise for me was an eyebrow up, head back into a double chin, like some people use as a face when snapchatting. And oh god, I screwed up.

Then of course, that's where everything went wrong. Tristan Mclean's daughter insecure? That's unheard of, so Elle Greenwood decided that she should, on her tiny channel, make it heard.

But like no one watches those shows, right? All but housewives that were watching whatever was before it and left the TV on. So I chilled out, watched the movie, gossiped with my dad about different celebrities, (Can I meet him? Sure. Would I like him though? Eh, Jerk. How about her? Ditz. It was dream crushing :/) gorged myself on the free food, wiped my cheezy-popcorn hands on my dress, and took off my heels. It was a really good movie, so I was really intensely watching it for a while. Everything went back to how it was after that night, except my trash gained like 300 makeup wipes as I tried to scrub my face off.

It was about a week when problem #2 came along.

The second issue: Annabeth Chase.

She's a celebrity in her own right, but she was no where near walking the red carpet.

A famous vlogger, she has tens of millions listening to her and hoping that she has another video up. Annabeth is smart and quirky and funny. I used to watch her, and envy her long curly blonde hair, startling grey eyes, and killer smile. She was really nerdy, but was gorgeous and witty, so it was no wonder that half the world and I adored her.

Cutting to the chase (Ha! Aren't I great. Phew.) something she did every once in a while, with movies she was interested in, was watch the celebrities.

On Elle Greenwood's channel.

She did it half for watching and mocking, but the other half to see how different celebrities liked the movie. But that girl noticed something, which was mostly a background element, with just about 45 seconds devoted to.

That was me.

Whether it was because I pulled a double chinned ugly face on television or because I wasn't really confident, Annabeth Chase saw me and was intrigued by me, but had barely any idea who I was. After seeing the clip of me during the entire interview that was posted by a person actually in the crowds there, she decided to mention me in her webshow.

Piper Mclean. Me.

It almost made me sick when I watched it, and I've had chopped liver splattered into my hair.

Then people looked me up, because let's be honest, no one has any idea I even exist.

But when looking me up, what would they find? A few photos of me as a baby, my dad's interviews mentioning me, and Oh Yeah! A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

I that little moment of inspiration I'd had, allowing my inner voice to be my only voice, I had signed it using my real name.

Trouble! Trouble!

A siren went off in my head the minute that I got more than 200 views in an hour. Then it went up. And got higher. And higher. People started to comment, like it, dislike it, add suggestions for next videos, etc. I was panicked. On that, I had talked about everyone! I was publically swearing, dancing, giving out my life story, and completely bitching! It wasn't like I expected anyone to watch it, so I used people's names! I called them annoying, rude, stupid, and… ugh I messed up.

Then Annabeth Chase, the girl who really single-handedly brought me to fame, brought it to a new level. She talked about my vlog on her own, a reaction video that was suggested by her fans. She told people to watch it. They'd like it. It turned into a big deal.

People were tweeting, Tumblr was quoting funny lines, and videos of me dancing to Call Me Maybe, which was the ringtone that I used for my dad, while passionately flipping off my phone, circled the internet.

It was crazy how much I'd spilled, like I said before. Like sure, maybe my dad could call me more, but he didn't need to hear it from the public, who'd heard it from me. He didn't deserve that.

And with that thought I took a running start, flopped onto my bed, and tried to drown out my thoughts with angry music that made my ears ring.

I heard a constant stream of dinging, and recognized my alarm.

I'd told Eddie that I'd had some ailment, but he being the cool guy that he was, allowed me to stay home and cry and read the comments while he supplied me with pint after pint of ice cream. And when the day after break came, he let me stay home, because I'd gotten over 20 million views in 8 days, so I was sufficiently going nuts. That's a lot of frickin people. There were thousands of outraged comments about my treatment, my story, bullying in general. Suddenly I was...known.

It was insane.

Suddenly I was a vigilante for anti bullying. It's a great campaign and all, but I don't want to be the Katniss of the rebellion. I want to be one of the ones inside, safe, unnoticed, but benefiting. Call me selfish, but I want to be _safe._

But I didn't have that luxury, so I just called Eddie up every few tv shows to bring more food to the blanket fort I made my bed into.

A couple days into my crying, people reached out to me via Facebook. Not like people who'd watched me, but people who had as many followers as my dad.

Annabeth found me.

I looked at the number, gave a rude "Who are you" type message, and we started to text. That turned into FaceTiming when we immediately clicked.

She was really like she was on her videos, the nerdy girl, but I found out more. Her CAD class, where they built virtual houses, inspired her to want to become an architect. She had issues with things that weren't permanent. Highly arachnophobic. She didn't wear much makeup, had crazy frizzy hair and had to have this Brazilian keratin thing, and lived in sweats and a sports bra. She also lived in San Fran.

We scheduled to meet when she realized I could afford to go anywhere my heart desired, so she snatched up at least 4 of my weekends, though it's not like I was busy.

A kid named Leo, whose comment I had liked (to which he replied by freaking out) got my number from Annabeth and started texting me too. He was a funny little shit who had absolutely no filter, but was actually really deep after 4 hours of texting and it being 2 in the morning, I found out a lot.

He lived in Texas, but decided to join us for one of my and Annabeth's vacations.

My Aunt Sheryl , oneof around 14 numbers I have, called me, told me not to swear, and also said that if anyone treated me like that again I should kick their asses. With her point having been proven, she dramatically hung up.

My dad forced her to call again, though, since I just couldn't stand to talk with him. It was ashaming, that I'd been able to say those things, but I just couldn't face him even after. He was so upset, Aunt Sheryl told me.

"He's gone through his photo album on his laptop about three times. Also gone through more than his share of cookie dough ice cream." Her nasally voice held compassion. I looked at my room's trashcan where 2 cookie dough ice cream boxes lay.

Sigh.

So after 2 and ½ hours of listening to the same snippet of Call Me Maybe, I blocked him.

There were some good reactions to the video too, the ones that actually made things happen. Eddie, who had told me he was touched about everything about him being more like an uncle who is wrapped around my finger than a paid servant, took my advice and finally asked the gardener out. That was good.

If Eddie being happy was the only good thing that came out of this, then it wouldn't be all too bad.

Also, since I was only ignoring my phone, I recieved a letter through the mail from one _Sally Blofis. _The address was from a really shabby part of town. But who was writing to me? I don't know any Sally's.

I opened the little blue envelope.

_Dear Piper,_

_I don't know if you know me, but I'm your friend Percy's Mom. _

I read it and it all makes sense. Blue envelope.

_I recently saw your video, and thought you might want to talk to someone female. You seem surrounded by boys! Goodness knows I am too, with my Percy, adopted son Tyson and husband. But also, I understand that having a lot of attention thrust upon you is hard. You may not know this, but Percy was born when I was your age, so I get a little of how you are feeling. Another thing, know that you are much stronger, brighter, and more important than you think. Remember this and it may help you like it has helped me. Even if you feel you don't want to come and talk, which is completely acceptable, know that our house is open to you whenever. _

_Ps. Thank you for saying all of those sweet things about Percy. It was nice to know my efforts paid off. And he probably would be embarrassed that I told you, but he's watched a few times!_

_PPS. I am also the Aunt of one Jason Grace, and he has also repeated your video, and has not failed to blush each time. On the day you referred to, he was asking quite a bit about you once he came home from school with Percy._

_Love, _

_Sally Blofis-Jackson_

As I read it a swelling feeling was starting in my stomach. Within a few lines, I had started to cry.

It was definitely coming from a mother. She was like the Molly Weasley, the perfect mom that I had never had, but now have a chance to have.

Thoughts ran through my head as I cried alone over my ice cream, thinking over the letter. Percy was born when she was 17? Wow. That would have been hell to go through. But Jason was talking about me? For some reason my heart started beating really fast. Another wow.

The invitation mattered most to me. That's really what made the tears roll. I reread it, then began to really cry.

It was a sorta happy cry.

It was also the last time I cried in self pity in a long time.

I was smiling, and I realized I'm not alone.

With that thought, I took my phone from my nightstand, unblocked the number, which had dozens of missed calls, and rang up my father.

"Hi" I croaked, before clearing my throat.

"PIPER! Pipes I-" He started. He sounded just as teary as me, but I cut him off.

"Dad. I'm really sorry…"


	3. Chapter 3

After reconciling with my dad, who was making tons of promises to be more of a family and doing things to make sure that he was still a father to me, like resurrecting 'Homemade Pizza Fridays', I resolved with my dad and Eddie that I would go to school on Wednesday.

It was a bit of a horrifying thought at first, because I had trashed so many of the people there on the internet.

First of all, it's the internet. The large void of useless information, strange edits, illegal downloads, and lots of people with lots of time who literally _love drama._ Which is sorta creepy except for the fact that I'm totally one of those people. So this will _never_ die. I can't erase those mean or embarrassing things. But the real issue is school.

School's the kind of place that you _really_ don't want all of your thoughts and opinions to be open, because it could affect you and others... a lot.

For instance: I called someone I never talked to, Jason, attractive, by saying, and I quote, he was "hella cute. 9.5/10 would bang" since I had seen a post on instagram that said that, and why not? So now everyone knows my crush. Damn.

How would Jason react? Would people bring it up? Would someone say that awful combination name Jasper that was trending in the comments of my subscribers? (the fact I even have subscribers is insane. Like someone actually wants to hear me rant? Why?) All those days eating ice cream I had wracked my brain trying to come up with answers that didn't want to make me fake my death and move to Canada.

But to be honest, I was actually more worried about my bullies.

Percy had contacted me, which was strange since he called my house phone from the phone book, and it was a really uncomfortable endeavour in general, but he told me that Drew, Reyna and many other girls I'd talked about were getting a lot of hate. Reyna hadn't been to school almost as long as I had.

And I did comment a lot on the video to stop the hating on them because no one deserves to hear some of the things people were saying about them. "Kill yourself" is absolutely unacceptable. No matter what they did to me, the words some people said about them were worse.

Time passed really fast. Like scary fast.

The night before, I was panicked. Like deep breathing while blasting intense music and screaming into a pillow panicked.

I had actually stopped by Sally's that day, which had caused me to see Jason Grace. So that was one less thing to worry about. Basically, we stared at each other for a good 11 seconds before he got off the couch next to Percy, shoved his feet into his beat up sneakers (on the wrong feet I noticed) and smiled quickly at me while mumbling under his breath about going to get something from the store. He fumbled the doorknob and basically sprinted out.

So...that was that.

But the rest of my time there was really fun.

Like, at first I was just standing there and Percy awkwardly motioned for me to sit while staring at me like I had come out as a vampire, but we started small talk that managed to get better. I'm honestly kinda proud of how I didn't say something stupid like I usually do.

Sally was supportive and cool. I mean, she was the ideal mother, but was still someone I could think of as a friend. Like Molly Weasley but chill and young and completely understanding of teenage life. Being 35 did help her case too, because she wasn't completely out of it yet.

I talked to her quietly after talking to Percy, rambling to her endlessly. I told her my fears of what could go wrong, and she soothed me, gave advice, and made me laugh. She was like a female Percy, who could make even the most hopeless seeming conversation enjoyable. Love her.

After our heart to heart, me Percy and Jason (who returned, and was being super awkward and blushy and cute and stuff) all played Super Smash Bros. which I failed horrendously at, dying at a record speed. It took out the awkwardness, and by the end of it, me and Jason had teamed up and kicked Percy's ass and we jokingly chest bumped, which wasn't uncomfortable socially (it hurt physically 'cause I have boobs but I managed).

But the interaction with the tiny, adorable family helped with my nerves. Also, I wasn't as worried about Jason's reaction, because at the worst point all he did was look at me, blush, try to say something, and then either fumble a sentence or low key hide behind Percy and then when we got more comfortable, he was able to talk and shout and laugh and wow. This is _really _new for me. Like whoa. But he would smile a lot when I spoke. He had a nice smile.

Okay, sorry, now's not the time to get involved with someone, because at the moment I am the Titanic approaching the iceberg: School.

I had dinner with the Jackson's, which was really fun because Jason loosened up even more and was able to actually flirt with me (Yay Piper! *Is my own cheering squad*) and Percy and Sally were hilarious. Tyson, their adopted brother, came home from his special ed school, and I met the adorable clutz who, at 11, was taller than me and the sweetest kid I'd ever met. He was autistic, adopted, a really big kid in general, and blind in one eye, but he was loved and treated as an equal all the same. I thought that was amazing. Also, he greeted me with a hug and a compliment, which was both adorable and needed, so basically I love him.

It was 9:30 when I left, and Sally forced me to bring cookies (which she had put blue food coloring in for some reason that really amused Percy) as well as a bit of the food from dinner. It stunk to go home, because I knew I would be nervous with nothing to get my mind off the day ahead.

I was right.

I went to bed late that night, after watching some TV shows (the Flash! It's great watch it) and then tossing and turning until I drifted off.

The next morning was rough. My alarms, all eight, had been shut off because of my missed days, so I woke up to the sound of Eddie yelling to me from the mudroom that I have to be leaving.

Nevermind make-up, I barely brushed my hair after I threw on a t shirt and skinny jeans. I ran through the house just to stop in front of the door when my backpack, having not been zipped all the way, allowed all of it's contents to spill out. And I'm not really organized, so everything that I had shoved into the pockets of binders exploded everywhere. Yay.

Eddie rushed me the entire time, and the cook, Eliza, was shouting at me in French to take my breakfast and lunch.

Somehow I managed to get to school with a few minutes to spare.

Little thing about my school in the mornings: everyone just hangs out in clumps in the lobby. Sometimes you have to shove your way through to get to doorways, making rough paths. But today, that didn't happen.

It was like parting of the Red Sea. Everyone stood a good 3 feet away and was ogling at me. It was like someone had dyed me purple, I had so many odd looks. Many disapproving, some admiring, most just curious to see the drama that will without a doubt take place. I could almost feel their eyes on me. It was like I was tingling and my throat was closing. Also I noticed I was sweating. Great. What's one more thing on the 'Piper's screwed List'?

The first person to approach me wasn't who I'd expect. In fact I had never even thought about this petite girl. But Hazel Levesque saw me and pushed her way through the gathered crowd with multiple impatient 'Excuse me!"'s which turned into sweet little shouts of "Move!" as the line ignored her requests. But she bounded up to me with an unreadable look on her face.

One thing about Hazel is this: her appearance was downright charming. She had her cinnamon colored hair in large curls that housed a white bow headband, she wore a printed pink dress with a cardigan on top, and she had navy flats. Preppy and pretty, she usually never wore anything on her face but a grin, but not even that was worn today.

"Piper, I apologize." She said solemnly. She looked like she was expecting some mean retort back. But why? I thought back to how I described her in my video.

Oh. Uh oh. "The Wicked Bitch of the Best's crony. She's like an adorable flying monkey that only sometimes had a mind of her own." Not a particularly great moment. But she really didn't deserve that.

I widened my eyes. "No! I should be apologizing to you! I was so rude and" I started, but she cut me off, leaving me kind of miffed.

"No, Piper, I knew. I might not have recognized it at first, but I know that bullying is terrible, having felt it myself, and I know what it does to people. I recognised the expression of pain, self deprecation... hatred" She said this so bitterly I made a little note in my head to find who had dared to bully her and pray they stub their toes or something because I'm so not looking for confrontation right now but they deserve something bad. Step on a Lego. There we go.

She gave a sigh and put her shoulders back. "I promise that now I'm going to have a mind of my own more often." She said, and I nodded when she looked at me for approval. I was about to turn away when she spoke again. "Also... I was wondering if maybe we could hang out some time, without having other people's thoughts shoved into my head." I nodded again, but this time I felt myself smile.

"Sure, I'd like that."

Everyone in the vicinity watched it carefully, out of the corner of their eyes.

Once she left, it was like the dam broke. Everyone approached me. People whose last names I didn't know came up to be and gave me a piece of their minds. I barely knew all of their first names, but they felt comfortable, apparently. People had mixed opinions, but they were willing to say them, which I thought was a small victory.

There isn't one emotion that would sum up my feelings. Confusion would probably be the closest. Within about 10 minutes, I got apologies from people I didn't know, comments about me being attention seeking, people calling me judgemental, a few people congratulating me on standing up, and so many people asking for my dad to sign stuff I don't want to talk. But Hazel was the first of multiple oddities.

Gwen also approached me, apologizing only slightly about her actions. But she was prideful and loyal to her friends, so she didn't renounce her friendship to Reyna, and that was alright. I didn't even expect a little apology. She, in her mind, and actually in mine as well, has done nothing other than befriend a two-faced person.

When Percy came in, he gave me this big grin and went to my side.

"Nice shirt. Didn't know you liked Van Halen?" He commented, ignoring the stares that people were giving him. See, he was usually glanced at by a lot of the female population, but when his hero complex got him attention on my video, he had gained the love of thousands of girls who thought that was amazing. Well, they weren't wrong, he was amazing. And about the talking normally thing I wasn't able to do, I was now, after hanging with him and his family for a day, able to talk with him like friends, which was pretty cool. We actually had similar interests.

Jason followed Percy and stood next to me, and even more people were staring at him. Or, well, us. They were waiting for a reaction, how he would respond to being called hot by a girl he didn't know in front of millions of people. But he just smiled a smile that made my cheeks flame, and stood on my other side.

"Yeah, they're cool. It's really comfy, so I wear it a lot." I told him, and he nodded in approval.

"At the moment I'm trying to get Jason out of a country phase, so you might be able to help me." He said. I grimaced. Country could be fun, but the minute a pickup truck was mentioned, I was done.

"Country is cool!" Jason protested.

Percy and I gave matching looks to him, and he sighed.

"Okay, I'd be willing to something next time we all hang out, but since I live with you, you can't force me to listen to anything." He said to Percy, who raised an eyebrow.

"Wanna bet?" He said challengingly.

They continued on a while, and I added a couple of comments, but otherwise, it was just them arguing.

Okay, can I just say that their banter was extremely sassy and had they not been related and (from what I can tell) straight could easily pass as flirting?

Either way, the attention left us pretty much, and suddenly it all felt alright. Like, I had friends!

Well, I had two people who I've hung out with once, but still! Friends!

But when Drew Tanaka walked through the glass doors of our shabby high school, I felt that things might have changed more than I had expected.

See, usually Drew is goals.

Her hair is actually perfect, with no split ends, stray hairs, frizzy parts, nothing, and it goes to her lower back. Her makeup is usually on fleek, sometimes a bit heavy, but still looked gorgeous, and her outfits looked like she had her own fashion designer in her room each morning. That good.

But today, I saw the true mess she'd become.

Yesterday's mascara had made a residue under her droopy, slightly red eyes, and her eyebags were prominent. She had a bit of color on her lips, but the rest looked like she'd gotten pneumonia. Or rabies. That was mean, sorry. She wore a sweatshirt that boasted her older brother's college, but somehow, Harvard seemed like a mocking thing to wear when she looked so down and out. With stained jeans and pair of flats completing the look, I was horrified.

See, it wasn't really that she looked bad. Naturally, she was a very pretty girl, so she didn't look awful, but it was just the fact that she was so not herself that made it eye-openingly awful.

_I had done that to her_.

Or, well, it was just that I had publicized her actions to a large number of people, but still, this wasn't right. Yes, she was a straight up bully and she needed something to make her stop, but she just looked so beaten down that I felt more pity in me than anything else. No more animosity. Well, actually… less animosity. But still.

She didn't have her cronies around her anymore, and so she didn't hold back when marching right up to me. She stared at me for a second, so close I could see a freckle of hers that she usually covered up.

"I'm not sorry." She said. Her voice was tired and blunt. "But you won't have to worry about me. That okay _Mclean_?" She said my last name icily, over pronouncing and somehow making it an insult.

My mind split into two.

Part one: Hold up. She isn't sorry? She made some days hurt to wake up because she was emotionally scarring me. I hated myself and her. And she didn't apologize? Not even when so many people were calling her out?

But the other side was a bit stronger.

Part two: Okay, so this is the girl that made my life hell for about 5 years, and she has officially given up? Yesssssssssssssssssss. *cue the embarrassing fist pump*

So I met her eyes and nodded, proud of myself although I was in mental turmoil, deciding between jumping for joy and cursing her out.

She seemed to accept this, and began to walk away, before saying something that I'd literally never dreamed of in my entire existence.

"Piper, I…" She said softly, staring at her tan flats on her feet. They were peep toe, and I just have to say her pedicure was totally perfect. Damn. "I want to let you know, sticking up for me in the comments, that was... good. Good of you. You didn't have to do that, but you did. So… thanks." She said, before walking away at a much faster pace, leaving me, Percy and Jason in shock.

"Whoa." Jason offered.

"Yeah. Whoa is right." Percy muttered.

Reyna skipped school that day. And the day before that. And the day before that.

And there was a feeling settling in my stomach. A dropping, heartbeat slowing kind of feeling. I knew it was guilt.

Before I go on, I want to tell you one of my favorite outcomes that happened from this video. Even thinking about it now, I still get a smile on my face. Because it was real change for the better. So I'll tell you about a really fucking cool reaction that I wouldn't have even dreamed of that happened, and it almost made me cry when I saw this.

Now, I'm a sucker for love. My parents used to tease me about it, and I always denied it, but still, every time there's a movie, I love the happy endings where they end up together and everything just clicks into place. Those are the things that make me smile, and I haven't changed from when I was five when watching Cinderella to now.

Now, before I continue this story, you need to know our school isn't exactly homophobic. There are, of course, the assholes who are like "No homo brah" and "That's gay" and other shit to make themselves feel better in some strange way. But there are also lots of people who are like "Yes homo!" which is great. They support gay relationships.

That is, if we had one. I bet 60% of these people have never interacted closely with some who was gay, and there's never been a gay kid in our high school's history.

So when Nico Di Angelo, the brooding Italian Sophomore who wore dark clothes and listened to music so loud you could hear guitar riffs from three seats over came in hand in hand with Will Solace, the bright and cheery Junior valedictorian who was already accepted to Dartmouth for his undergrad, the school's population was awestruck. It was a message, it was a middle finger in the face of social norms, and it was a really cute couple.

People whispered at a rudely loud level, but it was mostly just surprise. Because of who they were personality-wise, what they were gender-wise, and the fact tht Nico Di Angelo was actually really cute when he smiled were all highly talked-about topics that buzzed around the school. But Percy and Jason hadn't mentioned anything until Nico came up to us quietly. He used to be really, super short, but he had a growth spurt so now he's about my height, but he's super quiet when he walks. And when he talks. And just generally. But he came up to us and _smiled! _I shit you not, he actually looked pleased to see us.

"Hey Percy, Jase. Oh! Hey! Piper Mclean, right?" He said, and I felt a bit shell shocked. He was in my French Class because he moved up, and so sometimes he would pair up with me because there was no one else to go with (which is really sad now that I put it like that, but it wasn't bad. We would just look around the room before making eye contact and nodding when she mentioned partners) but we wouldn't talk.

Jason smiled teasingly. "Where's Mr. Sunshine?"

At that moment I had no idea what was going on. Because not everything happens on one day, people! They came out a couple days into my absence, so I had no clue what was happening. So, I did what felt natural. "Hey, Nico." With a polite smile. Done. Please don't talk to me.

Nico nodded. "_Will_ is doing some AP Anatomy project thingy that I wanted no part of. Why?"

Will?

Percy smirked. "Just wondering." Jason matched his mischievous expression.

Nico raised an eyebrow, and I felt myself do the same in my head. ? was all I was thinking. Why were they so close with Nico? And who is Mr. Sunshine?

Jason looked over and laughed. "Oh, I forgot you didn't know. See lover boy over here is dating Will Solace. And they're cuuuuuuutttteee." He said teasingly to Nico, who swatted him while furiously blushing.

"Well. Yeah. SO this has been humiliating. Thank you my dear cousins for that. Oh, and thanks for speaking out Piper, we weren't really sure if we would be accepted, but if people were chill with you bitching on Youtube, they'd be cool with Will and I dating. So you helped. I guess." He said while turning and rushing off to join Lou Ellen, a theater girl in his grade.

So that's that story. Kinda indirect, but really cute.

Classes went okay. I don't mean to generalize and time skip like that, but okay is a pretty accurate description for most of the day. Like, once the bell rang it was time for classes we had three minutes between each bell to go to the different wings, rooms, and even buildings. So nothing happened then, and since I take Honors and AP classes, the teachers don't allow much talking. French we had a sub, which was good. Nico and I just talked about how he and Will got together (they volunteered together at the Hospital, got coffee together after a long day, and clicked) but that was it.

But the part that made me really happy was seeing them as I walked to the car: Nico was leaning with Will as a backrest, reading, as Will absentmindedly held his hand. As I passed, Will made eye contact with me, and smiled. I literally went to kindergarten with this kid, and I have never seen him so happy. So that's it. That's the story. My screw up made someone really, really happy.

And I was starting to wonder if it would work out similarly for me. Maybe less drastic, but… there's still hope. Things were turning my way.

But when I got home, after pillaging the pantry for whatever junk food I could find (simultaneously giving Eliza a heart attack with the amount of food I planned on consuming), I raced to my room. Honestly, it's my lair, and I treat it as such. I jump onto my bed with the chips and chocolate covered pretzels I found, and I check the various social media things, as well as finally reading the 54 messages from the two group chats I was in. Percy, Jason and Nico had one that they added me to (I hadn't known Nico was their cousin before today, awkwardly enough) and Annabeth and Leo.

I scrolled through. Percy and Nico were mostly just talking. Homework questions, complaining about the rain that had started halfway through English, nothing, nothing, nothing. There were other things too, such as really super formal emails from news stations asking for interviews for small stories, or notifications that there have been even _more_ comments written on my video, but I looked past those. Scrolled by. Instead I went back to the silly messages and replied to Leo's pick up line of the day, to Nico's stressed questions about Chemistry and if the teacher had a soul (the answer is no), because it was a new and exciting thing. To have messages. To have people that cared enough to be texting me throughout their days. And wow, I had friends!

I felt myself smile as I ate another chip. Things really didn't turn out as bad as I expected.


End file.
